I was thinking about doing the same thing. I've got some old plastic foam fish floats, we always called them dink floats, thst I could cut into about 3 pieces and stick a bamboo skewer in so it rides up and down. Just use some marking pens to colour the skewer to show when it's getting low. I figure to put a piece of plastic tube in the lid for the skewer to slide up and down in so it doesn't tilt. Most of the time I just top up every 3 days and can see the level so know when to stop. No worries about light leaks,